Long-time digital strategist Mike Hahn has reached a conclusion: “Facebook’s dead.”
At least when it comes to fundraising. Hahn, who recently joined GOP fundraising shop Frontline Strategies after stints at National Public Affairs and President Trump’s reelect, is adamant that the platform won’t make a comeback in ’24, at least as a campaign fundraising golden goose.
“I don’t think there are any donors on the platform anymore,” he told C&E. “I think Republicans totally drained it dry. I think rev shares are the future.
Now, Hahn isn’t the only consultant to take this view. But he is plowing new ground now in his role as president of digital at Frontline Strategies, a rev share fundraising shop that works with the NRCC, RNC, and the NRSC.
“We are going to try and now build out an agency and try and get some more retainer clients in the door,” he said. “Those retainer clients will have the benefit of also working with the same data that the committees are working on and various other campaigns and PACS are also working off of.”
He added: “My philosophy is to try and get clients to net money so that they have more to spend on their races and not hit them with a massive invoice where they raised 300,000, but they spent $500,000 to do it.”
The way rev shares, a model that’s popular largely on the right, work in a nutshell is a candidate for congress will sign on with the company, and then Frontline Strategies distributes that to their target list with a WinRed link. The company fronts the cost and collects a certain percentage of the donation, while the campaign collects the rest and then gets the donor data for their own house file.
Hahn said the company’s agency side, which would produce the copy and creative for the client, will be built out by the second quarter. In the meantime, he said that any fundraising issues on the right — particularly the dearth of new donors — could be solved by better use of data.
“I think the data side of Republican politics is what digital was 10 years ago. People are kind of confused about it,” he said. “In the next five years or so, you’re going to start seeing data directors on campaigns just as much as you’re seeing political and digital directors on campaigns.
“And it’s going to be those data directors’ jobs to figure out who the new donors are, who we can get into the picture — and all the while, rising tides are going to lift all boats.”
